What's going on with my web searches?

[LU344928]

or duck duck go.

Duck duck doesn't seem to be living up to its promises (or Startpage, for that matter):

'Oh, and just to be sure… everyone knows that DuckDuckGo (DDG) is also surveillance (and false marketing of privacy). Right? Everyone is aware, we hope. We covered this several times more than half a decade ago.

'For the time being we can recommend SearX (when its pertinent instances are online, e.g. https://srx.sx/ which works at the moment but had uptime issues in recent weeks). It’s Free software as well, not just better at privacy'

http://techrights.org/2019/10/16/startp ... veillance/

[Mauser]

have they changed that much from 10, 15 years ago?

Google has certainly introduced vast censorship over the years, as attested to by many whistleblowers.

You may get better results with these:

https://gibiru.com/

https://www.yippy.com/

Thank you for posting those search engines. They might come in handy if Duck Duck Go fails to find what I am searching for. I agree with you on Google's censorship. That's why I duck it instead of Googling it. By the way, Duck Duck Go has been getting better with it's searches. It seems all these companies are nosy.

[JmaCWQ]

Gibiru appears to be a sort of proxy that uses google's results, blocking google as I do it won't work until google dot com is unblocked...not sure I'd call that private...

[Redacted]

It seems all these companies are nosy.

This is the whole problem in a nutshell.
I always have and always will care about privacy.
But the nature of the internet is now data gathering. (Just look at what was revealed about Avast). It's not something I like, but it's not something I can stop.
I have to decide whether I need or want the services enough to put up with it. I personally avoid the obvious things like facebook and other social media outlets, because I have no interest.
I do, however, understand those who use them. I wish they would think more about the privacy implications, but that's their concern. I cannot change their mind, nor do I particularly want to. In big cities across America, people leave their curtains and blinds open. When I was growing up, they were kept closed. It's a different world, and I have to adjust.
So with web searches, I just have to choose the one that gives me the best results.
I wanted to write more, but my handle was chosen because I can't seem to keep things short and sweet. I'm always redacting, lol.

[wulf]

Private.sh < addon for Mozilla based browsers is worth a look.

[Mauser]

It seems all these companies are nosy.

This is the whole problem in a nutshell.
I always have and always will care about privacy.
But the nature of the internet is now data gathering. (Just look at what was revealed about Avast). It's not something I like, but it's not something I can stop.
I have to decide whether I need or want the services enough to put up with it. I personally avoid the obvious things like facebook and other social media outlets, because I have no interest.
I do, however, understand those who use them. I wish they would think more about the privacy implications, but that's their concern. I cannot change their mind, nor do I particularly want to. In big cities across America, people leave their curtains and blinds open. When I was growing up, they were kept closed. It's a different world, and I have to adjust.
So with web searches, I just have to choose the one that gives me the best results.
I wanted to write more, but my handle was chosen because I can't seem to keep things short and sweet. I'm always redacting, lol.

I know what you mean. There are things we can do on our computers to be more private but you can not remain 100% private when you go online. I would explain my thoughts further on this but I don't want to overstep the boundaries of the rules of this forum because what I would type out scoots the edge of politics that I think it's best I don't discuss it here if you know what I mean.

[Mauser]

Privacy.sh < addon for Mozilla based browsers is worth a look.

Thanks. I use these settings with a VPN instead. https://restoreprivacy.com/firefox-privacy/ and https://gist.github.com/0XDE57/fbd302cef7693e62c769

[handy]

I've complained in threads from time over many years now about the ever so slowly creaping censorship of the search engines.

I can't see any way to change the situation. Duck often won't give me a result where Startpage.com will. Startpage uses G**gle's engine but doesn't track you. Though there was some talk of a change in ownership, have to see how that pan's out.

I don't know what the Waterfox search engine is like (is it really Bing?) I don't trust it.

[LU344928]

I don't know what the Waterfox search engine is like (is it really Bing?) I don't trust it.

Yes, the default engine is Bing but that's easily fixed.

Still, I prefer Waterfox to Pale Moon, which I stopped using a couple of years ago for a few reasons but mainly because it complained about my adblocker when I visited its site. Never used it since.

[handy]

I don't know what the Waterfox search engine is like (is it really Bing?) I don't trust it.

Yes, the default engine is Bing but that's easily fixed.

Still, I prefer Waterfox to Pale Moon, which I stopped using a couple of years ago for a few reasons but mainly because it complained about my adblocker when I visited its site. Never used it since.

I immediately change any browser that I use to Duck & Startpage.
I thought Bing was "his" new search engine.

I prefer Waterfox to Pale Moon as well. Mainly due to the lag I get with Pale Moon that I don't get with Waterfox. It may possibly be due to one of the add-ons that I use with Pale Moon? Either way, I consider the add-ons essential so...